Introduction: Depression is regarded as the main cause of individual’s incapacity. One of the component of depression is hopelessness. This study was planned to examine if the digit ratio associates with depression and hopelessness status in the Iranian women. Methods: This cross-sectional study sample included 358 women aged between 20 to 32 years old. The palm side of both hands of individuals was photographed and then the length of index and ring fingers was measured by ImageJ. The Beck’s depression inventory II and Beck’s hopelessness scale (BHS) were used to measure the levels of depression and hopelessness respectively. ANOVA and Student’s t test was applied to compare the study groups in respect to the continuous data. Results: The results showed that the means of 2D:4D ratio of neither right nor left hands were significantly different between the depression study groups. The same insignificant results were derived with hopelessness status too. However, reanalyzing the data, while combination of depression and hopelessness was considered, showed a significantly lower digit ratio of the right hand in the women whit neither depression nor hopelessness (group 1) compared to the women with moderate/severe depression while holding a degree of hopelessness (group 2) (ratio mean for group 1: 0.978 ± 0.003 and for group 2: 0.992 ± 0.005; t = -2.417, P = 0.017). Conclusion: Our data suggested that the 2D:4D ratio of the right hand in the women associates with the severity of depression when accompanied by hopelessness.

Introduction: One of the basic concepts of traditional medicine (TM) is temperament (mizaj), which plays an important role in diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In TM, depression and hopelessness were assumed to be related with coldness of temperament. To verify this assumption, the current study was design to examine the association of depression and hopelessness with hot/cold status of temperament in females. Methods: The sample included 340 healthy females from Fars province, southern Iran. Depression and hopelessness scores were measured using Beck’s depression inventory and Beck’s hopelessness scales, respectively. Participants’ hot/cold status of temperament were determined using a self-reported temperament identification scale which classified the volunteers’ temperament into three groups including warm, temperate and cold. One way analysis of variance and the post-hoc Bonferoni test were applied for comparison between the study groups. Results: According to the result, the mean of depression and hopelessness scores in cold group were significantly higher than that of warm group (for depression: p < 0.01, for hopelessness: p < 0.01). Discussion: The results of this study revealed the association of depression and hopelessness scores with coldness of temperament which support the theoretical principles of TM concerning the correlation of coldness with less positive modes. Conclusion: As the conclusion, based on the data of this study, depression and hopelessness scores appear to be affected by the temperament. These findings therefore may promise to take advantage of traditional medicine in the prevention and treatment of mental disorders.